Where is everyone?

[Tsidkenu]

Create a UD toon. We're having a blast in the depths atm!

[Jaden]

Hey, Brent was at one point a primarily UD toon! Now if only the Baleful Maw was still goin'

[TheKai]

That's all fine and dandy but it's only fun when there is an audience willing or able to support your roleplay.

Oh, it gets scarce in the UD. Sometimes I RP with a tumbleweed

Really? Almost every time I've logged on in the past week or two at least half the players on the server seem to be playing UD toons.

I know...just wanted that last part thrown out there

[TheKai]

Create a UD toon. We're having a blast in the depths atm!

Truth!

[Lockonnow]

can we lock this shit

[MopKnight]

I don't recognise the server that a lot of people are describing here. Especially exaggerations like Bob Killalot.

[Steve]

Do you know the term "chompin' on the bit?"

Here is what I find unfortunate: every time I log in, which is daily 2–3 times, I hear from a long-time player, a HUGE piece of negativity about the current state of the Server. And sure, I have my own layered negativity about BGTSCC, but that's my own bag, and I'm only sharing it with those that I know are in the same boat as me.

Nonetheless, and man...it totally bums me out to hear from so many players that feel ignored, tired, uninspired and simply bored out of their gored about their role-play on the Server.

I personally am trying to change this paradigm, for myself and for others that are listening, willing...and those that have spoken with me with honesty and straightforwardness, know that I am. But I cannot do it alone.

Actually...WE CANNOT DO IT ALONE. Where is everybody? Scattered. Tattered. To quote the Rolling Stones.

Look, what is, in my opinion, SERIOUSLY missing from BGTSCC is practical honesty. There is at least one elephant in the room, if not three. I shouldn't be the one dealing with it. It should be coming from the top. But it is not.

So, if you, the Player, are feeling alone—and asking where is everybody—then contribute a bit of story for other Players to be a part of, to contribute their energy to, and have some fun. You can already see it happening in certain "regions" of the Server. Granted...there are far too many regions of the Server and far too little Players in order to have a fully active and vibrant role-play possibility.

So: consolidate. Make yourself available. Play nice, OOC...but be dedicated to your IC/character.

Look, we all know that achieving "improvements" and gaining "stuff" is more easily achieved through grinding and LOOTZ runs. If you're asking where are the people for Role-play, well...is it RP of the personal kind, or RP of the repetitive dungeon crawling kind? Find a teammate that can help you facilitate either of the above, or, whatever motivates you.

Considering how long I've been playing on BG, and considering how few of my friends are still around these days, it is really about enjoying the small moments. The BIG moments, the big picture, can more-often-than-not be a huge let down. So don't set yourself up for that failure. I know I'm seriously through with that shit, from this point on.

Again, seriously...try to have fun adventuring. If you don't enjoy your little storyline of your little PC, then quit it and move onto something else.

PS— when I say "adventuring" you can just-as-easily exchange that with "follow your own story," whatever hardcore, no-core role-play your're getting off on. Essentially, adventuring is both the OG D&D idea of RP, as well as the "second life" version of RP.

[Dreme]

I don't see it.. I suppose there are less people online but I am still having fun.. It isn't the people online that I have any issue with, or those offline, my only issue is with game mechanics of the server.. I decided when I made Talindra Nightstar, that she would be pure monk until she found people to train her in the path she wanted to take.. She is suppose to be a monk/cleric/sacred fist.. So she has been searching for clerics of Sehanine and sacred fist monks to train under, however I know that Talindra can not become a cleric of Sehanine, because she is lawful, thus she will have to be trained by another priest and be inspired to follow said priest's deity.. Also, Talindra has sought out the clergy of Ilmater to teach her mundane healing techniques (which will be reflected by ranks in heal skill once the training actually begins), which I also see as an opportunity for the priest/paladin/whatever (in this case Reine!) to convert her to Ilmater..

So.. that gives me a lot of RP angles to attack from when I meet people..

"Be the RP!".. (totally didn't steal that from Bruce Almighty!)

[MopKnight]

Should also say that the only reason said training hasn't started is I have been busy as hell the last week and a half!

[Dreme]

Should also say that the only reason said training hasn't started is I have been busy as hell the last week and a half!

Take your time As long as I don't hit 380,000 xp before I get my training we are good I don't want to gain a bunch of xp I am going to loose when I RCR to reflect her training

[NegInfinity]

Do you know the term "chompin' on the bit?"

Here is what I find unfortunate: every time I log in, which is daily 2–3 times, I hear from a long-time player, a HUGE piece of negativity about the current state of the Server. And sure, I have my own layered negativity about BGTSCC, but that's my own bag, and I'm only sharing it with those that I know are in the same boat as me.

Nonetheless, and man...it totally bums me out to hear from so many players that feel ignored, tired, uninspired and simply bored out of their gored about their role-play on the Server.

I personally am trying to change this paradigm, for myself and for others that are listening, willing...and those that have spoken with me with honesty and straightforwardness, know that I am. But I cannot do it alone.

Actually...WE CANNOT DO IT ALONE. Where is everybody? Scattered. Tattered. To quote the Rolling Stones.

Look, what is, in my opinion, SERIOUSLY missing from BGTSCC is practical honesty. There is at least one elephant in the room, if not three. I shouldn't be the one dealing with it. It should be coming from the top. But it is not.

So, if you, the Player, are feeling alone—and asking where is everybody—then contribute a bit of story for other Players to be a part of, to contribute their energy to, and have some fun. You can already see it happening in certain "regions" of the Server. Granted...there are far too many regions of the Server and far too little Players in order to have a fully active and vibrant role-play possibility.

Speaking of practical honesty.
I heard this kind of argument ("If you can't find RP, CREATE it! It will all come back to you") before and the problem with it is that it doesn't work on less social characters.

Let's you have character that is not a social butterfly. Won't approach strangers with glee, won't run to campfire to tell the whole story of their life to people they never met before. With that kind of character the only thing you can do is dropping off emotes and waiting that somebody takes the bait. The thing is, people DON'T take the bait. And you're in real trouble if your character, say, hates ALL magic.

In this case you'll be running around for hours without finding ANY meaningful interaction for days or even weeks.

Ever summoned a devil to chat with it? I did. Had a nice walk on a beach while having mutually sarcastic discussion with it. The problem is that it gets old after 2 hours, and maximum roleplay it triggered was someone saying hello (to either me or the devil) and walking away.

So you see group of people that just returned from dungeon run, try to approach them to either stare them to death or stalk, etc. The moment you even think about interacting with them (from half a screen away), they'll pick things up and run the hell away. Not sure why, it just happens.

In dungeons you tend to run into people that are really bent on grabbing that treasure instead of interacting with suspicious hooded figure. They usually run off immediately(seeing that dungeon taken). Once I also had amazing encounter with someone who didn't even bother with any IC interaction, and went straight for yelling at me via tells because apparently hiding my location when looting is a bad thing, and than rage-logged-off before I said anything. Well, if that broken bottle I found behind dungeon boss is so important, I could probably give it away regardless of my alignment.

Personally I found out that solo-looting a dungeon like minotaur labyrinth or gnoll caves is deeply enjoyable mechanically (because playing a sneak actually requires thinking and does not result in "steamroll everything", especially if said sneak doens't have HiPS yet), but even that gets old after few dozen runs and you can't move to another dungeon because xp progression is low.

In my experience, people tend to form group of "friends"(2..5 people) while they're low level, and they interact with that group of friends ONLY, till they hit 20, when they scatter or quit. If you aren't part of their little circle, you'll have huge trouble initiating any interaction with them. They can accidentally ignore or fail to notice you completely. So, if you're established/returning character whose friends outleveld or left, you're screwed.

Trying to make rp by involving other people (say, you want a dwarf to rp crafting a dagger for you), also doesn't work well, because when you want something to happen, apparently all 5 people that qualify for the role will be busy or will be playing with 12 hour difference from you.

Just TRY playing less social (and preferably evil) character (level12..18) at least once. I'm quite certain that you'll bump into all those issues. Cause I experienced them, saw people that hit them, knew people that quit because of them (Basically, the dude said "Every time I log I wonder around for hours and can't find anyone to interact with. Looks like everybody has their little group and don't interact with anyone outside of it."). Less social, means that it acts along the lines "every stranger is treated with suspicion, telling too much is risky, and everybody is probably have ulterior motive".

Also, every time anyone dares to voice this kind of concerns, they're met with denial. "No, I play chaotic good social butterfly, it doesn't happen to me, so the problem doesn't exist". Yes, the problem exists. "Just make weekly group". Did that, group dissolved quickly. If I need to go out of my way and try very hard to have meaningful interaction on RP server, it means something is wrong, no?

Not sure what the hell happened, but in my experience peak of meaningful activity was back at january-march of 2014. Then people started quitting, level of activity dropped off, and around summer it was mostly about thinly-veiled excuse to grind <insert_monster_name_here> for hours. I even remember a non-evil group grinding with quite obvious necromancer without batting an eye.

The only way around that issue of getting involved into roleplay is making a clown. Someone weird or preferably insane that will walk around the map, grab people by their throat and shout nonsense at them, say, accusing them of being a penguins in disguise. This type won't have any shortage of interaction. But what if you want to play someone more serious?

^^^ This is based on experience from the last year. I do not think anything changed. Judging from current server population, it probably gotten worse, because "running around alone unable to find anything" happens the most at population of 15..25, and current population is around that number all the time.

[Steve]

If I need to go out of my way and try very hard to have meaningful interaction on RP server, it means something is wrong, no?

Yes, something is wrong. But it could equally be the Server, or you, Negs.

We ALL have to go out of our way to have meaningful interaction. No one is going to cater to your personal type of RP unless you are equally supporting them in theirs. I think it is that simple.

What happens a lot on BGTSCC—and I'm not exempt from this—is that a Player will put a boat load of attention, effort and "role-play" into their Character, trying to embody some shining example of a Type, or Role, or whatever. But this is, first and foremost, serving yourself. One can "hope" this situation sparks interest in others, and maybe "takes off" as rewarding interaction. But in my opinion, the usual result, for the individual Player, is: this isn't working, no one is paying attention to me, and this server sucks.

Just because BGTSCC is considered an RP Server, that by no means says it is RP that you personally like, or that it is RP that will satisfy you. Those 2 things YOU HAVE TO BRING TO IT. That takes effort, and investment.

I don't know how it is for you, Negs, but when I log onto BGTSCC, I usually have a handful of players that I can talk with OOC, and enjoy that company, whether or not I find "meaningful" role-play, at that time. And many times, this OOC relationship building leads to actual meaningful role-play. Crazy, no?

Trust me, I'm no longer any sort of flag-waving, pom-pom shaking cheerleader to the possibilities of great RP on BGTSCC. Those days are gone for me. But still, the situation has ALWAYS BEEN that YOU must create the role-play you want to see exist on BGTSCC. NO ONE ELSE will do it for you, and dammit, yes, it takes equal amount of hard work + luck to see it manifest.

Lastly, I'll say this to you directly and with practical honesty: playing a "less social" character and expecting to have "meaningful" RP interactions, is setting yourself up for direct and constant failure. YOU WILL ALWAYS FAIL. There, my honest opinion.

This does not mean you have to play a "social butterfly." Have you ever tried to play a kinda "normal" social type? Like, simply easy going adventurer?

But yes, Negs, I totally agree with you that after the 100th time you enter the same dungeon, the shine has worn off with adventuring. But you also cannot equate mechanical enjoyment with XP gain, or judging your achievements by "gains."

If you are as bored as you say your are, and as disappointed with others as you say you are, and have given up on trying to create RP for others, as you say it never works out, then I can only show you a mirror, and hopefully you find answers there. And I hope you find positive answers!!! Those that can improve experience on BGTSCC!

[Lockonnow]

can we lock this now i'll think that have been said what have to be said of this place

[Ivan38Rus]

Lockonnow more like LockDOWNnow amirite

[NegInfinity]

Yes, something is wrong. But it could equally be the Server, or you, Negs.

Here we go again. "It is probably your fault".

Please take your time and re-read my previous statement WITHOUT trying to blame me for issues I had.

I had larger array of characters, and if you're speaking of effort, I put that effort in. More than enough of it.

One can "hope" this situation sparks interest in others, and maybe "takes off" as rewarding interaction. But in my opinion, the usual result, for the individual Player, is: this isn't working, no one is paying attention to me, and this server sucks.

I was not speaking of "pay attention to me". I was speaking "nobody to talk to" situation.

I don't know how it is for you, Negs, but when I log onto BGTSCC, I usually have a handful of players that I can talk with OOC, and enjoy that company, whether or not I find "meaningful" role-play, at that time. And many times, this OOC relationship building leads to actual meaningful role-play. Crazy, no?

This is really not funny.

There is decent number of people I can OOC chat with. The issue is that OOC chatter does not usually result in IC roleplay. Especially when characters are mutually exclusive, hate each other guts or have incompatible alignment. Frankly, for OOC chatter I can just grab skype or any chat client.

What are you gonna do when the only person online is the one you're supposed to capture on sight? Or if another person is locked within guild event in location which you don't even know that exists?

Lastly, I'll say this to you directly and with practical honesty: playing a "less social" character and expecting to have "meaningful" RP interactions, is setting yourself up for direct and constant failure. YOU WILL ALWAYS FAIL. There, my honest opinion.

If this is true, then the server is useless. Because your statement dismissed larger part of the necromancers, assassins, rogues and villains from your story. "Nah, you guys are not needed".

In this case, what is the point of playing?

then I can only show you a mirror, and hopefully you find answers there. And I hope you find positive answers!!! Those that can improve experience on BGTSCC!

I'll take that mirror and turn it back to you. Look into the mirror.
How many of my characters you knew? Met? Interacted with?
WHY excatly have you arbitrarily decided that it is my fault?

It is exactly the attitude I spoke that is causing problems - complete denial that any kind of issue exists.